"... Just because a book contains lots of information that you don’t know, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be extremely helpful in making you better at this point in your chess development. ..." - Dan Heisman (2001)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140626180930/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf
Chess can be both a game and a topic of study. If you really enjoy the game but don't enjoy the conditions of playing vs others, then just sit with your board (or Stockfish) and start exploring the possibilities. Test your ideas, try to prove yourself wrong, etc. Carlsen himself says that in his early days of playing chess, he'd just sit with a board moving the pieces around by himself. No need to stress yourself with results 
chess is a game of ideas, you must memorize ideas to get better at the game.
"Feel like quitting"
"I don't know where to begin"
troll grade 1/10 boooooo
"... Memory is too valuable to be stocked with trifles. Of my fifty-seven years I have applied at least thirty to forgetting most of what I had learned or read, and since I succeeded in this I have acquired a certain ease and cheer which I should never again like to be without. If need be, I can increase my skill in Chess, if need be I can do that of which I have no idea at present. I have stored little in my memory, but I can apply that little, and it is of good use in many and varied emergencies. I keep it in order, but resist every attempt to increase its dead weight. ..." — Emanuel Lasker
Consistency is an unrealistic expectation. And not just at your level. I'm rated over 2000 IRL (nearly 2200 here on chess.com) and my play is also highly inconsistent. I've drawn games with World Chess Champions (literally) and also lost games to players rated a thousand points lower than me.
Even the best players in the world fall victim to this. Ivanchuk lost five games on time in one of the recent World Championship playoffs... just sitting and staring at the board until his flag fell, on five different occasions. Bobby Fischer started the Zurich 1959 tournament by losing to an unknown Swiss player (Keller) and very nearly losing... two pawns down in an endgame but drew... against another (Walther).
Consistency is a rare attribute, even among world-class players. Capablanca is almost the only example that springs readily to mind.
Instead of visualizing your chess progress as a steady upward ramp, picture it as a loose spiral, wobbling around and around and back and forth, but trending generally upward over time.
Blueemu's "chess spiral" comment is quite on the spot,imo.....I'm pretty inconsistent and am now beginning my 4th book(along with tactics and videos...the John Bartholomew videos are fun and pretty good,especially "Climbing The Ratings ladder")....but I can enjoy more games that I decide to watch and analyze due to my study....It doesn't always have to be an immediate jump in my play and wins,as long as I feel I can appreciate what I see better players are doing.
It takes 1 year to increase my rating from 700 to 1400. what I do is play huge amount of games of longer time control and recognise basic tactical paterns and solve few puzzles.i have never studied any opening or end game theory till date.
Verdict: Your play is very normal. You are a beginner, and you play like a beginner.
Look at the tips offered at #2, and try to apply them in every game, every time.
"... People who want to improve should take their defeats as lessons, and endeavour to learn what to avoid in the future. ..." - Capablanca
I started 3 months ago, I was as you around 800 and now I'm 990. I am reading "logical chess move by move" the book is helping me a lot, specially understanding the opening principles. Every week I take one game, play through it, and write down in my chess notebook all the reasons for a specific move and all insights I have. As I could only find this book in English I am also translating it to my mother language (Portuguese) and by doing so learning even more. In addition I do tactics everyday, 7 new tactics and 30 reviews of tactics that I have already seen.
I started 3 months ago, I was as you around 800 and now I'm 990. I am reading "logical chess move by move" the book is helping me a lot, specially understanding the opening principles. Every week I take one game, play through it, and write down in my chess notebook all the reasons for a specific move and all insights I have. As I could only find this book in English I am also translating it to my mother language (Portuguese) and by doing so learning even more. In addition I do tactics everyday, 7 new tactics and 30 reviews of tactics that I have already seen.
I started playing this game three weeks ago, dont give up. Its hard and will take years to become good at it, chess its really complex and have a lot of stuff to learn.
@Nfld709 - Most of the advice I would give has already been given, so a couple of extra points. I notice you're getting most tactics puzzles wrong and when I look at your times you're answering (guessing, because you're getting it wrong) them too quickly. This is a problem because 1) guessing or making intuitive moves is a bad habits that will occur in games. You need to really focus on calculation and thinking problems through. There are no 'intuitive' good players certainly not under 1800 FIDE, intuition and making moves without calculation is gambling, you might get away with it sometimes but you're still gambling needlessly. 2) You need to begin to learn these patterns and by 'discovering' the right answer through thinking properly about the puzzle that will occur quicker.
More generally, advice I'd give to anyone who is downhearted or disappointed or feeling like they're not making progress is to benchmark your progress over a longer time-frame. Never compare today against yesterday, any change positive or negative is just fluctuations and variation (that spiral which was mentioned), but you can more reliably compare today against this time last month or six months ago. I think for an improving beginner a good rate of improvement is 5-20 grading points a month in whatever game type you play. Your first few months may be faster, but if you can sustain that over a long time you'll soon be much stronger.
hey Puzzlovich, you incrased 1000 in just 8 months? really inspiring! If I get more 200 in the same time span I am already be satisfied
I don't think the motivation to quit chess comes so much from the low ratings which persist despite all study, but the inability to play any more interesting chess because of the inability to transform hours of study into any improvement in game outcomes. It is unfortunate that chess is a game rather than just a topic of study, because many people find it intriguing but because they can't play well, involving themselves in chess means getting beaten again and again, which has to be unpleasant simply because of the completely absorbing struggle during the game to win. People who love art but can't paint can always be art historians or art critics, but there is no comparable role for chess lovers who just have no talent at the game, so the only way for them to indulge their interest in the game is to get metaphorically beaten up, game after game, day after day.